I don't love summer
It's a delicacy in the summer
- Fried cicadas
"On the banyan tree by the pond, I know that the sound of summer is calling..." The cicadas of childhood still echo in my ears, and I have entered middle age.
Although I have heard countless cicadas chirping, I don't know what cicadas look like until this summer.
I don't know why, my husband is fascinated by all kinds of strange ways to eat, such as eating grasshoppers, eating bamboo rats, eating walnut worms... Even the cicadas didn't escape his chopsticks.
No, at the invitation of a friend, he made a special trip back to the township where he had worked before, and after half a night of busy work, he finally returned home in the early hours of the morning, carrying a plastic bag in his hand. Inside came the news... cicada...... Knowing the cry. Yes, the bag contains cicadas, commonly known as "knowing".
"Cook it, take off your wings, and put it in the refrigerator."
Listening to my husband's words, as a "deputy parent", I did not dare to be vague, took the plastic bag and went into the kitchen.
Looking at the cicadas bouncing around in the bag, my heart was only worried. Why? Because of the lack of heart, you know, before this, I had never made a cicada.
Cicadas have wings, if you put them into the pot, under the action of high temperature, they may desperately fly out, then the husband's efforts will be wasted.
"You can't do that." I thought to myself. I was going to ask my husband, but when I turned my head, I saw that he was already asleep on the couch with his head tilted, and he couldn't bear to wake him up. There was no way, I had to recall in my mind the practice of something similar.
pregnant! I remembered the scene of the grasshopper being cooked. Since grasshoppers and cicadas both have wings, their cooking methods should be similar. So, I took half a pot of cold water. Put the cicadas in the pot along with the plastic bag, the bottom of the plastic bag should be left outside, and the bottom of the plastic bag should be pressed against the edge of the pot with the lid. As the water temperature rises, the plastic bag is constantly squeezed, causing the cicada to jump into the hot water along the mouth of the plastic bag.
Cicadas jumped into the pot, jumping and singing the sound of life, and at that moment I felt a trace of my cruelty, but in order to eat, I completely ignored it. Maybe this is the world of foodies! I admit that I was not a lady in the first place, and I became a woman in front of foodies.
Gradually, gradually... The cicadas chirped so little that there was no sound at all. I know that these cicadas are all dead.
I opened the lid of the pot and looked at it, and sure enough, there was not a single living thing in the pot. I turned them over with chopsticks, and in the boiling hot water, I saw the cicada's body gradually change from straw color to golden yellow. Not only that, but it also emits the smell of grasshoppers.
I poured the cicada into the basket, stirred it with cold water, and began to pluck the wings of the cicada. Although I have heard the phrase "thin as a cicada wing", I don't know much about the cicada wing. In the process of picking the wings, I took the cicada's wings in my hands countless times and looked at them, but the wings of the cicadas that had been plucked could not see the thickness of the cicada's wings. So, I took a cicada that had not plucked its wings, spread its wings, and put it under the light to observe, only to find that it lived up to its name - the wings of the cicada were indeed very thin!
I washed the wings of the cicadas I had plucked and intended to leave them on the balcony to dry. But if you think about it, something as thin as a cicada's wings cannot withstand the temptation of the wind, and only a trace of wind can take them away. So I put these white, shiny things in the corner of the coffee table, and when they dried, I put them in a glass bottle and kept them.
After getting the cicada wings, I began to "purify" the cicadas. This "cleansing" is actually cold water to wash the boiled cicadas clean, which is convenient for preservation.
Cicadas are caught in the mud and sand by the water's edge, because the summer days are too hot, cicadas chirp in the trees every day, it is inevitable that the mouth is dry, and at night, they fly down from the trees to drink water, which is this survival instinct activity, so that they can not escape the fate of being caught.
One might think that people eat cicadas a bit cruelly. In fact, the cicada is a pest, it mainly depends on the sap of the tree for a living, which will lead to the leaves of the tree, death, but the cicada in addition to the pest, or a medicinal material, can play a throat clear throat effect, which is the main reason why people eat cicadas.
In fact, in the food chain, we hear the most is "praying mantis catching cicadas, yellow finches are behind", behind the yellow finches, isn't it us humans? The food chain is not absolute, at some point, it is people who take the place of the praying mantis, but the mantis catches cicadas in trees, and people catch cicadas, just at the water's edge.
After the cicadas are cooked, they are stored in the refrigerator for a long time, and it is not a problem to leave them for about a year.
Cooking cicadas is the simplest thing to do. Take the cicada out of the refrigerator, fry it in a hot oil pan, and when the color of the cicadas turns golden, you can get out of the pan. When frying cicadas, pay attention to the heat, you can only use a small fire to fry, if you use a fierce fire, there will be a situation of "unfamiliar noodles".
You may question, why not put the seasoning? Don't worry! After the cicadas come out of the pot, sprinkle a little salt on top and it's OK.
The taste of fried cicadas is crispy and delicious, which is also somewhat similar to grasshoppers. The difference is that grasshoppers have more meat than cicadas, and cicadas bite down and eat an empty shell, but it is such an empty shell that provokes the taste buds of countless gourmets, not to mention snack goods like me!
Do you love this delicious summer snack fried cicadas?
Text/Yu Yanfen
Photo : Li Wenfeng Dai Ziji
Source: Baoshan Tourism
Editor: Li Meilan
Editor-in-Charge: Yang Qingzong
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